For our Scripture reading and text, please turn with me to Judges 6. Judges 6. We read together verses 25 through 32. You will recall from last week, I trust, that just prior to our text tonight, the angel of the Lord had appeared to Gideon. Gideon had offered a food sacrifice, a food offering to him, which was received in Gideon, then builds an altar to the Lord. And now in verse 25 we begin with these words, the word of the Lord. That same night the Lord said to him, Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old, tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height, Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering. So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him, but because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal's altar demolished with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar. They asked each other who did this. When they carefully investigated, they were told, Gideon, son of Joash, did it. The men of the town demand that of Joash, bring out your son. He must die because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning. If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar. So that day they called Gideon Jerob Baal, saying, Let Baal contend with him, because he broke down Baal's altar. Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ, have any of you ever been pushed outside of your comfort zone? I think we all know what a comfort zone is. It's that zone where with whatever you're doing, you feel comfortable up to a certain point. But if you're asked to go beyond that particular point, then you're no longer comfortable. You become terribly uneasy. We're pushed out of our comfort zones in many ways. Being a catcher for the baseball team, behind the plate, catching that fast pitch with a batter, with a hard bat in front of you, pushed me out of my comfort zone when I was younger. For some people, simply climbing on a horse and riding a horse pushes them out of their comfort zone. A mother who has a new daughter that just gets her learner's permit and drives for the first time with her is definitely pushed out of her comfort zone. If you're given a new task at work that you've never done before and you're being dependent upon to deal with that task, to carry out that task, that can make you uncomfortable. Public speaking for boys and girls in school, if you have to stand before your classroom or even other people in the business or in the church. If you were asked to stand before a group of people, it can make you terribly uncomfortable. How about family visitation? Family visitation by the elders sometimes stretches many of us beyond our comfort zones. We get nervous about what they will ask or what they will find or what they might think. Yes, no type of questions are okay, but personal questions about our relationship to the Lord that we can't just simply give a quick yes or no answer to push many of us past our comfort zone. And then there are things like canvassing the neighborhood for vacation Bible school or for the children or young people inviting a friend to church makes us uncomfortable. Oh, it's easy to invite one to go see a movie or to come to a party or to go to the beach, but to church makes me feel kind of funny. Or how about something like prison ministries or handing out Christian literature on the street corner? Would that push you out of your comfort zone? These things and many other things indeed make us very uncomfortable. In fact, I believe that most of us would agree that much of the work that we are called to do in God's kingdom makes us uncomfortable. It pushes us outside of our comfort zones. Gideon was pushed out of his comfort zone. Last week we saw how God called Gideon to be his reformational leader. We said that God chooses or elects people for office or service and then He equips them. God reforms His way. God chose Gideon. His election and His calling of Gideon was a sure thing and so was His equipping of Gideon. It was a sure thing. And tonight we have the opportunity to see a part of God's equipping process of Gideon as God gives him a task to perform. So consider with me the Reformer's first assignment, noticing the order that came to him. Secondly, the way in which he carried it out. And then finally, the consequences connected with it. Now first of all, we look at Gideon's order from God in verses 25 and 26. That same night, the Lord said to him, Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old, tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole beside it, then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height, using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bowl as a burnt offering. Now this is quite an assignment. You see, when God called Gideon to be his reformational leader, he was allying himself with Gideon. He had told Gideon, I will be your God. But now in this order, God is commanding Gideon to ally himself with God. You see, beloved, that's covenant, isn't it? God establishes His covenant with His people. He allies Himself with His church and says, I will be your God. And then He demands obedience and you shall be My people. And Gideon would ally himself with God by destroying the cult to Baal, which had to be done before the true worship of Israel's God could be restored. As long as there were other gods in the picture, you see, Jehovah could not be properly worshipped. Remember, God demands exclusive obedience. As Elijah reminded the Israelites on Mount Carmel, God's people cannot and must not stand on the fence between two opinions. As Jesus said, either you are for God or you are against Him. It's not both and. Either for or against. Now, God tells Gideon to tear down your father's altar to Baal. You see, congregation, reformation begins at home. It begins in your own heart, in my own heart, in your own home, and in my own home. But now, why did Baal's altar have to be destroyed? Why couldn't God just make it easy on Gideon? The altar was already there. Why not just convert Baal's altar into an altar for God? Well, to understand the answer, we need to look to God's command concerning altar building, which we find in Exodus chapter 20, verses 22 to 26. Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell the Israelites this, You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven. Do not make any gods to be alongside me. Do not make for yourself gods of silver or gods of gold. Make an altar of earth for me, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it. Gideon is to build the proper kind of altar. Here you see in Exodus 20, we have some pretty strict requirements. Israel was to use earth when building an altar. Dirt, if there was no earth available, they had to use stones, but the stones could not be dressed. Now, boys and girls, we're not talking about clothing, of course. We're talking about stones that have been cut out, chiseled, a tool being used on them, carefully groomed. If they used stones which had been touched by a tool, the altar would be defiled, infected, and God would be profaned. He would be offended. Now, why such strange rules? We know that God gave strict and what we would consider to be strange rules to test the faithfulness and the obedience of His covenant people. Here was Israel living in Canaan, the land that was supposed to be flowing with milk and honey. But remember, they had not completely driven out all of the Canaanites as God had commanded, so now they lived with them. And the Canaanites, remember, were heathen people. They were enemies of God, and they should have been enemies of God's people. And the Canaanites, even though they did not serve God, they still had some sort of a system of religion that they had developed. They had a religion which to them was proper, and in this case, their gods were Baal and Asherah. And the dressed or chiseled stone altar that Gideon is told to tear down represents the male god Baal, and the Asherah pole represents the female goddess Asherah. These were gods of fertility, gods of nature, gods of productivity, And that sort of thing, we might add, that which flows from that, then success and security and wealth. But you see, in Canaanite faith, their idea of worship was that worship was a way to stimulate productivity in the family or in the earth. And the center of activity for Canaanite worship was the dressed or chiseled altar to Baal. And at that altar, the people would then worship in order to stimulate these gods to give continued life and to make the ground fertile for food. But then again, here's Israel. Israel is nestled right in the middle of Canaan living among the Canaanites. And God expected the Israelites to walk in the way that leads to Christ. To walk in the way of faith and obedience to God just as God expects you and I to walk in the way that leads to Christ. In the way of faith and obedience to His Word. For the Israelites, that included God's commands about building an altar. For you and me, that includes God's commands with regard to worship. But they hadn't obeyed. Instead of being a Christian influence on the Canaanites, it seems that the Canaanites had all of the influence on Israel. Israel adopted the pagan Baal-worshipping ways of the Canaanites. In fact, it's most likely that the Israelites combined their worship of the one true God with worship to Baal. Syncretism, blending of worship. And treated God like just another one of the deities. Polytheism. And as we can imagine, God would not allow the cult to Baal and Asherah to coexist with the worship of the Lord. The cult had to be destroyed. Isaiah 42, verse 8, there we read, I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. Gideon's order or commission was to tear down Baal's altar, to destroy it, to build a new one. And the new one is to be the proper kind because Baal's altar was not. And Gideon is to use the material of the old altar, the Asherah pole and so forth, for burning. And notice also he is commanded to build this new one on the top of this height. On a bluff, as another translation says, so that it would be in plain view for everyone to see. And then there's one more thing to notice about this order. Gideon is told to take his father's seven-year-old bull. Now, many believe that this represents the seven years of oppression that Israel suffered by the Midianites. Could be, but the text doesn't tell us that. And we do know that the number seven is used often in the Bible and is considered to be a number of completeness. And since God required unblemished animals, the age of this animal may have been a part of its perfectness. But again, we don't know. But we do know that this bull would be sacrificed on this new altar to represent Israel. It represents taking the place of the people and bearing the guilt of the people. And we also know that the Old Testament sacrifices were symbolical and they pointed forward to the eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ who actually took the place of and actually bore the guilt of all the elect. God called Gideon to bring back the people of God. To put them back on track. Israel had forsaken the way leading to Christ and Gideon was to bring the feet of the people back onto that path leading to Christ. In other words, he was to bring them back to covenant faithfulness. In Reformation, beloved, there's only one way. And that's God's way. And the first step on the road to Christ is a deep confession of guilt and the acknowledgement to admit that one stands a curse before God. And by doing what God ordered, Gideon was confessing the guilt of the Israelites, and he was also seeking that first step on their behalf. In this first assignment, though, Gideon is actually ordered, if you notice, to take a stand against his family and against his fellow townsmen. They had not yet repented. They still comfortably worshipped Baal and the Asherah pole, and now Gideon was commanded to tear those things down. You see, part of Gideon's equipping was to first set things straight at home and to do what was right before the Lord. His orders were to begin the Reformation at home. He was called to sacrifice the comforts and the happiness of home, no matter how sinful, and to sacrifice those for holiness. And beloved, Reformation begins in our homes too. And a good place to start is how we prepare to come to worship God. When does your preparation for worship begin? Does it begin Saturday night with a good night of sleep so that you might get up rested and refreshed first thing Sunday morning to be here on time, ready to worship God? Or does your preparation begin when you finally happen to get here and get seated down? You see, beloved, the children need to be taught what exclusive obedience to the Lord means. And it begins with the Lord's day and His worship. But today, we still have the same gods, don't we, in many respects? We still have the same gods. They might have different names, they have different images, but still the same. Those gods are still the things that we think, in some small way, give us power and give us social status and give us influence and security and comfort and wealth. Things like sports and achievements and cars and popularity and occupation and hobbies become our gods. And these things draw from us our time and our money and sometimes even our vote. We look for worldly benefits in these things apart from God. Our struggle, let's admit it, our struggle often is that we know the Lord. We know what He requires of us. But in some ways, the world has become such an important part of us that we can't imagine doing without it. Yet, beloved, we are called to stand up against the enemy. The world and its pleasures, the world and its treasures are to be sacrificed to God. But in the second place, how did he do it? What was the way that Gideon carried out his orders? Verse 27 says, So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him, but because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. Now, what happened here? You might say, what are you talking about? Gideon did exactly what the Lord told him to do. He was obedient. Yes, he was. But if you look close, what we see here is a weak-faithed Gideon. We might say one who was not willing at this time to openly and boldly confess the Lord his God. It's true that Gideon did what God ordered him to do, but how did he do it? Was it out of confident obedience to God? Well, it was obedience. The text says that. But not confidently. Look again at the text. Verse 27, But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he followed God's order at night because he was plagued by fear for his family and the town. You see, Gideon is held on a pedestal by many because he did what God ordered. They say he wasn't trying to be a hero here, you see, so he is given the status of honor and nobility. But beloved, look at the facts. Look at the text. He maybe would have deserved that status of honor if he had done his work during the day. If only he had stood in faith in broad daylight to let the word of the Lord and the glory of the coming Christ be seen and heard, who knows how much more powerful that act of reformation would have been. Gideon's actions were letter-perfect. That is, he followed God's orders to the letter, but his actions were not heart-perfect. He did it out of fear for his family and the town, not out of obedience to God. At this point, Gideon's faith is still weak. As it turned out in the morning, you see, the people didn't see what they were supposed to see. They didn't see obedience to God on Gideon's part, nor did they see the call to repent or the need to repent. All they saw in the ruins of Baal's altar and the Asherah pole was some mischievous prank against a sacred object. They saw vandalism. They saw gang violence. We need to realize, beloved, that Reformation doesn't begin very well in secret. Not at all. It covers the glory of Christ. It muffles the Word of the Lord. Remember, Jesus boldly overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple. Martin Luther didn't go to the post office and mail his 95 thesis to a few friends in secret. He publicly nailed them to the church door for everyone to see and everyone to read. And we must praise God that many of the martyrs were so confident of their faith by God's grace that with gladness they ran to the noose, that they ran to the stake, considering it an honor to die for the cause of Christ. But you see, here in Gideon's case, he was afraid of his family and friends. He was afraid of what his dad and mom might say. He knew that what he was doing was the right thing to do because God told him to do it, but he did it in the dark. He tried to remain anonymous because he was afraid of how those he loved would react. What a shame. But it sounds all too familiar, doesn't it? I'm afraid that I can identify so much more with Gideon than I can with Paul who counted it all joy along with Silas to suffer for Christ. God has called you and me as believers to be His reformational leaders today. But how many reformations, whether personal or ecclesiastical, haven't been stopped dead in their tracks because some family member said something like, I'll disinherit you if you create waves in the church. Or I'll kick you off of the farm or out of the house if you do this or that. Or you'll never set foot back in my house again if you leave the church that our family has been a part of for three generations. Oh, we don't agree on what the Bible says. That's okay. We can compromise there. We can gloss that over. But don't mess up the family. Now, beloved, Gideon's actions of tearing down Baal's altar in the Asherah Pole are not support for law-breaking violence. And anyone who would use it for that is misinterpreting Scripture here. But it is a call to boldly stand up for the truth of God. Unfortunately, so often what's right causes problems. It causes friction and trouble, even when it shouldn't, because the truth hurts. Challenging one's sin with the truth of the Gospel is offensive, But so often to keep peace, what's right is placed high on our shelf while we settle for something less than right. So that which is done against God's Word and that which is contrary to our confessional loyalties is conveniently swept under the rug. It's put out of sight and out of mind just to keep peace in the family. And that's too bad. Remember, Jesus said, He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. Well, what then did Gideon gain? Nothing. The people found out about him anyway. Probably from one of his ten servants who couldn't handle the pressure of the interrogation. But what did he lose? Gideon forfeited the opportunity to sound a crisp, clear call to the way of faith and obedience. Now, the argument often comes up that, well, if Gideon had done his work in the daylight, they would have stopped him. He wouldn't have been able to be obedient to God. Really? Remember verse 16? The Lord said, I will be with you. And Proverbs 16, verse 7 says, When a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him. I think we need to remember that verse, especially when we get caught in certain situations of life when we're terribly scared to stand up for the truth. When man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him. Reformation, God's way, is not done out of fear, but out of faith and obedience. It's not begun in secret, but openly and boldly. So then what were the consequences connected with Gideon's actions? Our text tells us that in the morning the people were pretty mad. They were angry. They figured out that Gideon did it. They demanded his life. Again, we read in verses 30 to 32, The men of the town demanded of Joash, Bring out your son. He must die because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning. If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar. So that day they called Gideon Jerob Baal, saying, Let Baal contend with him, because he broke down Baal's altar. The people around Gideon did not see Gideon as a reformer, and they especially did not see him as any sort of a leader at this point. Again, all they saw was a vandal who destroyed something that was precious to them. To them, Gideon was nothing more than a sacrilegious delinquent. So the people came to Gideon's father, Joash. It was the right place to come. He was the head of his household. And as well, it appears he held a prominent position in the community. After all, it was his altar to Baal. But since he was the head of his family, it was his job to watch over the preaching for his family, the worship of his family, and the discipline of his family. Joash, we might say, was the equivalent of a New Testament elder. He had an important position. But he too wasn't very successful. His own family had jumped off of the way that leads to Christ and he never did anything about it. In fact, he went along with it. He promotes Baal worship by having his own altar to the pagan deity. He compromised in order to keep his children, we might say, in the church. So when the people came to him, they were sure that he would be on their side. They wanted to kill Gideon. They wanted Joash to make that possible. After all, the penalty was death. According to the law, the penalty was death. They knew it. Joash knew it. We find that law recorded in Deuteronomy 13, verses 6 through 9. Hear these words. If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, let us go and worship other gods, gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, Gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land or the other, do not yield to Him or listen to Him. Show Him no pity. Do not spare Him or shield Him. You must certainly put Him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting Him to death. And then the hands of all the people. That was the law. But did you notice the problem there as we read it? The problem was that the law was for those who tried to get God's people to worship idols like Baal. Not for those trying to promote the worship of Israel's true God. These people were twisting the use of this law around, twisting the Word of God to make it work to their own advantage, to make it say what they wanted it to say. And how does Joash respond? He's in a bit of a tight spot, it seems, but he manages to get out of it. He basically says, look guys, I realize that this is an ecclesiastical feud. It's a church problem, but there's no need for you to pick up your weapons of ecclesiastical discipline to fight for the gods. Let the gods take care of their own problems. Let Baal deal with Gideon himself. You see, Joash, like Gideon, is congratulated by many for sticking up for Gideon. and not giving in to the people. But also, like Gideon, Joash failed. How? He redefined service to God. He redefined what that service was all about. Again, like Gideon, he had the opportunity to sound a crisp, clear call to return to the way leading to Christ. He had the opportunity to stand up for the honor of God's name and show them from God's law that Gideon was right and they were wrong. But he didn't. He said the gods could take care of their own problems and he included in that Israel's God. He was just another one of the gods. To Joash's credit, he basically says, well, what kind of God is it that cannot defend his own honor? What kind of God can Baal be if His honor needs to be defended by man. This is definitely true with false gods, but it's the wrong idea, beloved. It's the wrong idea when it comes to the worship of Jehovah. Sure, our God can and will defend His own honor. Just look at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He doesn't need man's help to defend Him. But the true worship of God, the proper attitude of the covenant is for God's people to be filled with a fiery zeal. For the honor of the name of our Lord. When Jesus cleansed the temple, we read in John 2, verse 17, then His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house has eaten me up. Joash redefined service to Jehovah by saying that God doesn't require His people to stand up for His honor. There is no need to defend the name of the Lord. Well, congregation, if this is true, then there's also no need for public profession of faith. But how wrong that is, how terribly wrong and twisted that is, as we were reminded this morning from that first article of the Belgic Confession, that we must confess the truth of God. We've sung of that tonight. I will extol thee, O my God, and praise thee, O my King. Now I realize I make it sound like Gideon's first assignment failed, don't I? Well, you see, the assignment didn't fail. Gideon did. In spite of Gideon's inadequacies and his failure to stand up openly for the honor and true worship of God, God still used Gideon's work. The altar to the Lord stood tall, high on the bluff for everyone to see. Why, Baal's altar, while his altar and the Asherah pole were nothing but ruins. The power of Baal had been broken in his own circle. The cult was destroyed. Gideon followed God's orders, his command, to the letter. He was letter perfect, but not heart perfect. He followed God's command out of fear for others, not out of pure obedience to God. Yet, as we hope to see as we continue on, God was equipping Gideon and strengthening his faith. We as believers have been called by God to be His reformational leaders in the world and in the church. And reformation, God's way, includes bold, open, speaking out for God. Defending God's Word and the honor and the glory of His name. In Gideon, we see an inadequate testimony. Basically, a mirror image of our own inadequate testimonies, right? But praise God that we have the comfort of knowing that we serve a God who uses our inadequacies for the sake of Jesus Christ to fulfill His purposes. But we also serve a God who expects and commands His children to be alive for Him. To speak in the daylight for Him. To speak openly for Him. Not to go into hiding in our homes and to be quiet, but to be pushed out of our comfort zones for Him. Now please understand here, beloved, we're not talking about violent crusades at the church, going on some sort of a violent crusade against the world, but we're talking about standing up for the truth of God in daily life. For example, boys and girls, when you're in the classroom and you have the opportunity to cheat, or a classmate tries to get you to do something that you know is against the rules of the classroom of your teacher, you don't cheat. You don't follow that classmate. For example, in the office, beloved, that we do not give in to the temptation to follow unethical practices, but to stand firm, even if it costs us that promotion. With our friends, we do not give in to the temptation to do wrong, to steal candy from that store, Or to go see a movie that we know that our parents would not want us to see. When it comes to our neighbors, that we do not remain quiet when they are trying to influence us with speaking all kinds of nonsense and using God's name in vain. But that with the help of the Holy Spirit, we stand up for the glory of God and speak the truth in love for Him. And also positively to always be prepared, as Peter says, to give a reason for the hope that is in us. People of God, when those who worship God or claim to worship God keep silent, then in a sense, evil wins. Not to speak out for God before men when you have the clear opportunity to do so is really the same as denying Him. Remember what Jesus said, Therefore, whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, Him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not shrink back from confrontation. He did not cave in under pressure. He openly proclaimed the glory of God. He openly demonstrated the power of God. And on the cross, as He paid the penalty for the sin of His people, He demonstrated to all the world the proper way to come to the Father. Only through Him. So when is the last time you were pushed out of your comfort zone on account of your faith and love for God? When is the last time you were called to take a stand for God and made you terribly uncomfortable? If you can't remember, then maybe your faith and your love for God isn't what you think it is. Beloved, you can sit here in church every Sunday. You can exist in this community day by day. You can even be letter perfect. You can do all the right things. And you may even be able to give the appearance of keeping all of God's commandments. But if you're not heart perfect, I'm not talking about perfectionism. But if you're not heart perfect, if you do not live with a new believing heart by the grace of God, if your heart isn't in it and you're never moved to uneasiness for the sake of Jesus Christ and His kingdom, if you're never ever persecuted for righteousness' sake, then being letter perfect means nothing. You see, Christians may very well be called upon to suffer in this life for the sake of the gospel. But those who reject Jesus Christ and don't repent, they will suffer in the next life. When we consider how terrible we have sinned against God and offended God, especially by not standing up for His glory, how much more wonderful our salvation must seem. Because think about it, beloved, Jesus Christ also paid for our sins of denying Him. He paid for our sins of rejecting Him, of turning our back on Him. What a great Savior! You see, we so easily stand up for the honor of our family, of our fathers, of our mothers, of our brothers and sisters. may we do no less for our Heavenly Father because He gives great joy. As the apostles showed in Acts in prison, singing at midnight, He gives great joy when we openly confess Him. To truly own the salvation, the joy of salvation means that we cannot, it's impossible to keep silent about the Lord. Don't keep silent. Obey God by His grace, not out of fear for what others might say, but out of joy and a desire for reformation, God's way. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, we do confess that so often we are weak. The old man continues to assault us, to cause us to turn our heads, to ignore those who blaspheme Your holy name, those who would seek to assault the kingdom of God, those who would seek to hurt the church of Jesus Christ. We are so often weak, but Father, You are strong. We pray, O Lord, that You would equip us more and more every day. that You would strengthen us by the power of Your Holy Spirit to stand firm for You, to take comfort in Your words, I will be with You. May it be our desire that our ways are pleasing to the Lord and to know that You are the one who will guide our every steps. You will help us to meet each obstacle and challenge that stands in our way, to meet it in Your strength, in Your strength alone, and You will be glorified. Father, thank You for this, Your Word. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.